I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
by ColourHunter
Summary: Emil Steillson is a city boy with ten dollars in his pocket and no future. Lilli Zwingli is an uptown girl with a ton of cash and a future she doesn't want. Two teens on the run and both are looking for a life better than the one they have now. IceLiech - DISCONTINUED
1. Life Less Ordinary

**Hello and welcome to 'I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For'! Whew...long title is long, no? Oh well, this is an IceLiech Fanfiction because these two need so much more love~! Anyway, please excuse any inaccuracies, this story isn't so much about life on the run, it's more about the relationship between the two people who are running. **

**Disclaimer: No, I don't own Hetalia... but you knew that didn't you?**

**So, that said, let's get on with the story! :D  
><strong>

* * *

><p>Emil Steillson watched the slowly rotating blades of his ceiling fan. He was home alone again, the only company being his guardians' fluffy white dog, Hanatamago, who lay curled up on his chest. He brought his hand up to scratch the puffballs ears and sighed. The dog let out a groan and snuggled closer to the pale haired boy's chest. "Yeah…me too,"<p>

The low buzzing of his cell phone snapped him out of his half-daze. He reached out to the side table to pick it up, only to find it just out of reach. He rolled his eyes. "Of course," he mumbled. He stretched his arm out as far as he could and lightly pulled the phone towards him with his fingertips. When it was within comfortable reach, he snatched it up and flipped it open. "Halló?"

"Hey Emil, its Michael,"

"I know,"

"Listen papa got us a new T.V. because our old one was crap and I was wondering if you wanted to come over later and watch some movies with us."

"And just how many of those are going to be in Chinese?

Michael paused. "Well…we could always turn on the English subtitles,"

Emil almost smiled. "As nice as that sounds, I think I'll pass."

"Oh, okay…well, if you change your mind, just drop by. You're always welcome at our place."

"Thanks Mike," he waited for the other to hang up.

"Hey, Emil? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Mike," Emil snapped.

"…Okay…well, if I don't see you later tonight, I'll see you after school on Monday."

Emil closed his phone without saying goodbye. In general speaking to people was a pet peeve of his. Mainly because in his experience, people tend to judge him when the find out his social status. Everyone made fun of him and insulted him, except for Michael and his family. Truth be told, Emil was envious of the Chinese boy. He lived in a good neighborhood he went to a good school, and he was rich, really rich. Everything Emil and his family are not.

Rather than the nice uptown suburbs like Emil's guardians' wished for them, they were stuck in a two-room apartment in one of the most crime-filled neighborhoods. Graffiti and smoke was common in the high school in which Emil attended. Several students have gotten high simply by breathing in the air. Emil knows from personal experience, and it wasn't pleasant.

He hated his life. He wanted to go somewhere else. He wanted to be someone else. He wanted someone to care for him. He just wanted to escape.

He blinked.

_That's it…_

He sat up quickly, making the dog to yelp in surprise as it fell. Swinging his feet over the side of his bed, he stood up and grabbed his backpack. Emptying its contents on the bed, he replaced them with several changes of clothes and food items he kept hidden from his brother. In the front pocket, he stuffed in a small wool blanket.

Zipping up the pack, he slung it over his shoulder and ripped a piece of paper out of his math notebook. He scribbled five words on it before letting it flutter onto his pillow.

He walked to the front door of the apartment and opened it. Looking over his shoulder, he took one last look at the layout.

On the couch, several blankets lay splayed about. That was where Matthias, Emil's brother's boyfriend slept. On the wall, opposite the couch, was their ancient TV, they only got FOX News and for some reason a Swedish station from the sixties. It was still in black and white, and every two minutes someone would have to fiddle with the box's antenna to make sure the picture was only fuzzy and not pure static.

They didn't have a table. They would eat TV dinners in front of said piece of furniture in silence. The kitchen consisted of the small fridge kept in hotels' and a small microwave that took ten minutes to heat up a marshmallow. Off to the side were two bedrooms with a connected bathroom. One was where Emil and his older brother slept, and the other was where his guardians, Berwald and Tino slept.

He can't say he'll miss it, so keeping that picture in mind he walked out the door and closed it behind him.

* * *

><p>Lilli Zwingli wondered why Uncle Rodrich had called her to his office. Whenever she had a meeting with Uncle Roddy, it usually meant she was in trouble. She racked her brain trying to think of something she might have accidentally broken in the past few days. She couldn't think of anything. So why was she sitting in an uncomfortably silent room, along with her brother, Vash, Uncle Roderich and another man.<p>

Vash sat scowling with his arms crossed. Lilli wondered why he was in such a fowl mood. It's well known that Roderich isn't Vash's favorite person, and the young blond man was always irked about something or other, but today, he seemed even more agitated than usual. Lilli sat with her hands folded politely in her lap, every now and then she would nervously pick at her fingernails. Sometimes she would glance at the stranger in the room, but when she did, the two would make eye contact. He would smile, but Lilli would always go back to staring at her hands.

The stranger's hair spiked upwards and Lilli couldn't tell if it was light brown or dark sandy blonde in color. He sat very casually, not at all how a person of his high social status should be sitting. Lilli didn't like the way he looked at her. Behind his green eyes, she could see something glinting, and it made her feel uncomfortable. Every now and then, he would take a puff of his pipe, and he exhaled out a sickly sweet smelling smoke. Lilli decided she didn't like this man.

Roderich cleared his throat and set several pieces of paper on the desk. "Ahem…well, it appears that the paper work is all in order," he turned to LIlli, "Miss Zwingli, I would like you to meet Herr Lars VanEck."

The man stood up and Lilli returned the gesture with a small curtsy. Lars took her hand and kissed it lightly. "It's a pleasure to meet you," he said smoothly. It sent chills up Lilli's spine.

"A-and you," she stuttered. Lars held onto her hand longer than she found comfortable. The longer he held on, the redder her face became. After several awkward moments, Vash coughed and the two sat down.

"Lilli, Herr VanEck's Family has shown great interest in our business, and wishes to court your hand in marriage." Roderich stated.

Lilli blink in disbelief. Her protests caught in her throat, resulting in a small squeak. It most certainly explained why her brother was so unhappy. This man was at least ten years Lili's senior, and considering she was still underage…

She decided she liked this man even less. Roderich continued to explain everything as if Lilli getting married wasn't a big issue. She didn't pay attention to a single word said by the Austrian businessman. She could hear his voice, but couldn't make sense of what was being said.

She stood up abruptly and excused herself from the rest of the meeting. She ran up the stairs to her room and flopped down on her bed. She covered her face with a pillow. _Is this really happening? I'm going to get married? To a man so much older than I am? How could big brother let this happen?_

The pillow muffled her sobs; however, one could still hear them from the hallway. She heard a light knock and the door creaked open. She removed the pillow from her face and sat up. "M-miss Héderváry," she said, trying to pretend like nothing had happened. The older, brunette woman came and sat down next to Lilli.

"Please, call me Elizabeta, or Aunt Lizzy. Now, what's wrong? I heard you crying from the hallway. Did something happen?"

Lilli brought her knees up to her chin. "I'm supposed to get married early next year."

Elizabeta gave Lilli and empathetic look and wrapped her arm around the younger girl's shoulders. "Ya know, Roderich and I were in the same situation five years ago. Neither of us were very happy about the thought of marrying a complete stranger. But for the sake of the companies we represent, we did get married."

Lilli looked at Elizabeta with a confused expression. "But you and Uncle Roderich get along so well."

Elizabeta smiled. "Well, the more time Roderich and I spent together, the more we liked each other, and we fell in love."

Lilli pouted. "Yeah, but you and Uncle Roddy are around the same age. I'm engaged toa man at least ten years older than me."

The corner of Elizabeta's mouth twitched. She was typically open to all sorts of things, but that was pushing it. She hugged Lilli tightly and stood up. "I'll go talk to Roderich for you okay? I'll try to work something out. You're going to marry this guy no matter what, but I might be able to convince him to wait until you're eighteen," with that, she turned and left, leaving Lilli to herself.

She sat, staring blankly at the wall for a moment and then she grabbed her cross-stitching. It helped her clear her mind. She spent several hours working on one pattern, repeating the familiar motions.

Elizabeta stopped by again and said that she couldn't convince Roderich to change his mind or postpone the wedding. The news didn't come as a surprise to Lilli. Roderich has always been very conscious about the money in the company, and marrying into another rich family was too good of an opportunity to pass up.

She continued to work on her cross-stitching. What was she making again? Was it a pillow, or was it a handkerchief? She couldn't remember. She just wished that 'Herr Lars VanEck' would leave, but she knew that wasn't going to happen.

_Maybe I should then…_

She knew all the security gaps around the mansion. Granted there weren't a lot, but there were some, and her window was right over one.

She dug out a bag from her closet and filled it with her warmer clothes. She stripped her bed and tied the blankets and sheets together. Tying one end of the linen and cotton rope to her windowsill, she tossed the bundle of cloth out the window. She felt ready, but she couldn't help but feel like she was forgetting something.

That's right, a note!

She grabbed a piece of her personalized stationary and neatly printed five words.

Then she did something she never thought she would do. Climb out the third story window.

* * *

><p><em>Don't Try To Find Me<em>


	2. October

**Hey guys! I just want to thank everyone who reviewed, favorited, or put this story on alert. It means a lot to me. So, here we have, 'I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For' Chapter 2!**

* * *

><p>Emil mentally slapped himself. How did he think this was a good idea? In what world was running away a logical way to change one's life? It wasn't! Maybe that's why he chose that path…<p>

Thirty-six hours have passed since Emil walked out the door and panic was beginning to settle in his gut. In eight hours, his family will probably call in Emil as a missing person. The police won't take that call seriously, if at all. Emil could be dead and the police would just say a drug dealer or gang shot him without any real investigation.

His head throbbed. He was worrying too much. He spent the past four hours sleeping on a bench in one of those sheltered bus stops. Despite the amount of cloth in his backpack, it didn't serve as a very comfortable pillow. He rolled his shoulders, trying to get rid of any pain there. He felt something snap into place and sighed. _That's better._

He had walked a surprisingly long distance since he left. He was no longer in his dumpy neighborhood; instead, he was in the business section of downtown. He smiled to himself. _Maybe Michael's family business is somewhere around here. _He highly doubted that, but he thought that it was worth looking for. It was very late, and the streets were empty with the exception of a few homeless people raiding the dumpsters in hope of finding half a donut. Emil was one of them now.

He sat down on a bench underneath a tree in front of the largest company building in town. _Edelstein Corporations. _He scowled. Berwald, his papa, used to work for Edelstein Corporations, but they fired him for something he didn't do. They claimed that he was stealing money. How could he have been? If he were in fact stealing, they would have been able to afford a good lawyer when they went to court. Berwald and his family lost the case, along with their money.

All this happened when Emil was young, so he has very little memory of the actual event, but he still holds Edelstein Corporations responsible for their current financial situation.

He debated throwing a rock through the shiny glass windows, but decided against it. He's already a runaway, the last thing he needs is to be charged with a criminal offence. Instead, he settled for spitting at the sign. He grinned when he saw the wad of saliva splatter all over it.

He decided to start moving again. He picked up his bag and started walking down Main Street, where all the café's were. He'd have to be careful. Tino works as a waiter at one of the Finnish restaurants, and if he spots Emil…

He shuddered at the thought. Tino is terrifying when he's angry. Emil would have to keep away during the mealtime buzzes and come back later. Luckily, for him, he doesn't have to worry about that right now. His stomach growled audibly. He was hungry now… He couldn't wait for the shops to open at eight a.m. He could delve into the provisions in his backpack, but he thought it would be better to stock up as much as he could and go into hiding for a while.

It works in theory.

But what now?

He could putz around for a while and risk being seen by someone, or he could skip town completely and keep running; go and find a new life somewhere else. Both ideas sounded good to Emil, but at the same time, the also sounded bad.

Blood pulsed in his temples. He would give almost anything for a bottle of Coke-Cola right now. He shoved his numb hands into the pockets of his jeans. As he did, a gust of wind sliced through him and he shivered. Late October was always the windiest part of the year.

He clenched his fists and decided that it would be a good idea to find a relatively sheltered place to sleep. He glanced around and decided an alley would suffice. Crossing the street, he ducked into one between a French café and a Russian bar. Whoever thought that was a good idea was crazy in Emil's book. But he won't complain. He'll get a fair meal out of the stuff tossed out.

He dropped his backpack to the ground and it landed with a faint thud. He knelt down to pull his wool blanket out and wrap it around him. He shivered one last time before he lay down on the concrete, placing his head on his backpack, and waiting for sleep to come.

It never did.

He did find himself in a semi-conscious state after an hour or two. It was short lived however, because at around the same time, he heard a scuffle at the other end of the alley.

"L-leave me alone. I-I'm warning you, you don't want to mess with me!" Emil heard a girl stutter. She sounded no older than he was.

He sat up to get a better look at what was going on. Two men were leaning over a small girl, cornered against the wall. Despite the distance and darkness, Emil could clearly see her trembling.

One of the men leaned in closer. "C'mon little lady, we just thought that you looked like you needed somewhere to stay tonight," His speech was slurred.

The other man hiccuped before saying, "Why don't you come spend the night with us?"

"I-I was just on my way home," The girl responded. Emil rolled his eyes. This girl was a terrible liar, and these men knew it too.

"Well, we could walk you the rest of the way. This part of the city can be dangerous at this time of night. Especially for a young woman like yourself,"

The way that phrase was said made Emil feel slimy, and it wasn't even directed at him. He didn't plan what he did next, granted, if he did, he would have probably talked himself out of it. He stood up, picked up a broken beer bottle and threw it.

"Hey! Asshole!" He called.

* * *

><p>Lilli was beginning to regret her rash decision. Sure, being a runaway gave her a rush of adrenaline. But now she felt sick and not to mention guilty. She hated the idea of her brother worrying about her.<p>

She was running in a full out sprint the moment she dropped to the ground from her window. Once she made it off the property she slowed down a little but she knew she had to keep moving. She had been lucky enough to catch a ride on a bus which took her into the city.

She got off at the very last stop.

Now what?

In all honesty, she had no idea where she was, there were lots of restaurants though. She blinked and realization hit her like a ton of bricks. She was on her own; she had no place to go, and no-one to help her. She had the urge to start sobbing, but she resisted it. She couldn't be weak now.

But still…

She couldn't help but fall to the ground and lean against the outer wall of one of the buildings. She hugged her knees close to her chest. It was really cold outside. Cupping her hands around her mouth, she blew into them and rubbed them together in attempt to gain warmth. She shivered and looked around. She was in an alley between two restaurants. Several dumpsters and tipped over thrash cans littered the place. At the far end, she could see a lump by a dumpster. _Probably a homeless person._

Lilli yawned. She had completely forgotten how late it was. There wasn't a clock nearby, but if she were to guess she would say it was around two a.m. Her eyelids were heavy, but she knew that she had to stay awake. If there was one thing Vash had taught her, it was that there are people who wouldn't think twice about taking advantage of her.

However, Lilli's eyelids had a mind of their own and closed despite how hard she tried to keep them open.

No later that she did so, the sound of footsteps and voices grew near. She prayed that they would just pass by and not notice her. How's that for wishful thinking?

"Hey girlie, what are you doing in a place like this all by yourself?" one of the voices asked. Lilli opened her eyes and stood up quickly. Two men, who looked at least twenty stood in front of her. Both were considerably taller than she was. One had a hood pulled over his head and the other had a hat, so she was unable to see their faces. She wished Vash were with her.

"I-uh, I was just…," Lilli froze up. She didn't have any lie to feed these two guys. They laughed and she wrinkled her nose. She could smell the foul odor of alcohol on their breath.

"Looks like we got ourselves a little lost girl," the man with the hood smiled. Lilli frowned and pressed her back against the wall, wishing she could just pass right through it.

"L-leave me alone, please," she choked. Tears started to well in her eyes.

The two men laughed. "She's so polite," the other slurred. Both were obviously drunk, but that didn't make Lilli any less scared. She tried to duck past them, but one pushed her back. She screamed and kicked a rock; it hit the other wall.

"L-leave me alone. I-I'm warning you, you don't want to mess with me!" she stuttered.

The man with the hat and slurred words leaned forward. "C'mon little lady, we just thought that you looked like you needed somewhere to stay tonight."

The one who had better control over his speech hiccuped. "Why don't you spend the night with us?"

"I-I was just on my way home," Lilli lied. She knew they didn't believe her, heck, if she were them, she wouldn't have believed herself either. But they played along anyway.

"Well, we could walk you the rest of the way. This part of the city can be dangerous at this time of night. Especially for a young woman like yourself,"

The man with the hat reached forward and stroked Lilli's cheek. She closed her eyes tightly and turned her head to the side, trying to escape his touch. The way he spoke to her made her feel like she was speaking with a snake.

The sound of shattering glass against pavement caught her attention and made her open her eyes. She looked around frantically for whatever had made the noise. At the far end of the alley, she could see the silhouette of another man. Was that the homeless person from before?

"Hey! Asshole!" he shouted.

* * *

><p><strong>Bum Bum Bum... :D<br>**


	3. Stranger

**Ugh...I'm not happy with this chapter, simply because it wasn't very interesting to write...and it didn't turn out how I wanted. I've had so much on my plate recently, and I haven't been able to work on this very much. But I finally got chapter three finished :D. Anyway, I wrote out the rough outline chapter per chapter, and I've figured this'll be around 11 to 12 chapters long. :)**

**No, I don't own Hetalia**

* * *

><p>All of a sudden, Emil became far too aware of what was around him. Even through the blood pounding in his ears, he could clearly hear every little noise, from the crunching of gravel underneath his boots to the rustling of leaves in the autumn winds.<p>

He pulled his arm back from throwing the liquor bottle, and pressed his lips together in a tight line. Every fiber of his self told him to run away. Whoever these men were, they were larger and stronger than Emil was. Yet, with each passing moment, his feet remained firmly planted where he stood. _'Why can't I move?'_

Roaring laughter erupted from the two drunkards. "Well, lookie here, we've got ourselves a…a…," the man with the hat fumbled. He was so drunk he could barely articulate a sentence properly.

"A hero wannabe!" the other finished.

They started walking- stumbling, rather- toward Emil. The girl they had been harassing took the opportunity to run away. Within moments, Emil found the men looming over him. They smelled strongly of alcohol. Emil would know, Matthias would go on drinking binges every so often and he would always smell as if he bathed in liquor.

Okay…so, how is he going to get himself out of this one?

At his old high school, fights were common, but he was technically never part of one. He was always the one overlooking the fights and deciding the winner. Most of the time it was obvious who had won, simply by seeing who wasn't beaten to a bloody pulp. However, there were certain cases when the two fighters were equally matched and the fight would last forever. That's when Emil was brought in. He was always the least biased out of everyone because he really didn't give a shit about who won or lost.

However, unlike at school, Emil is part of the action this time, and it's going to be dirty as hell.

"So kid, you think you're some sort of hero?"

Emil stood his ground. "No, I just think that filth like you should keep away from little girls," he was actually surprised at the amount of bravery evident in his voice.

The man in the hat spit at the ground, grabbed Emil by his collar, and pulled him up so that only his toes touched the ground. "Listen punk," he growled. "I don't know who you think you are, but it's obvious that your mommy didn't teach you any manners."

The other chuckled stupidly. "Why don't we teach him what'll happen if he messes with us?" he said cracking his knuckles.

_SMACK_

Emil's head snapped to the side and blood dripped out the corner of his mouth. That punch was hard dammit! Yet, for some reason, it didn't hurt as much as he expected it to. He laughed.

It came out softly at first, but the more he laughed, the louder it grew. He was full out cackling by the time the man let go of his collar.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" he shouted.

Abruptly, Emil stopped laughing and looked at the two men out of the corner of his eye.

"I have two dads," he stated simply.

The two men blinked. "What the hell…?" they said in unison.

"I have two dads, and they taught me more manners than you sons of bitches ever learned." Emil smirked. Damn, he was enjoying himself.

"Faggot!" one shouted, trying to take another swing at Emil, but he ducked and punched his attacker in the gut before running past them to the other side of the alley. He picked up an old rusted pot that had missed the dumpster.

"Say, do you know how much blunt force trauma is needed to die of internal hemorrhaging?" he asked them. "I had this friend, back in seventh grade who got beaten up by shit bags like you. They pulled his broken body out of a dumpster, just like this one," he rapped his fist against the metal. A hallow echo filled the alley. "Ya hear that? It's pretty empty. Someone was to be dropped to the bottom of it, no one would know. They would just keep throwing bags of garbage on you. They wouldn't know you were in there until it was too late. Doesn't that just sound…horrible?"

The moonlight hit Emil in such a way that his violet eyes seemed to glow, giving him an ominous aura. He twirled the pot in his hands and took a few swings with it, like he was going to hit a baseball. The two men backed away slowly from Emil with looks of both confusion and fear plastered on their faces. As soon as they backed out of the ally completely, they broke out into a stumbling run screaming, "The kid's a freak!"

Emil started giggling madly. They were even more fun to mess with than Matthias when he's drunk. He wiped a tear of laughter from his eye and sat back down with his backpack. Pulling his blanket over his shoulders, he leaned against the brick wall and closed his eyes. That was more than enough action one needs at two in the morning.

"Um…e-excuse me?" questioned a soft voice. Emil lazily opened his eyes, mildly irritated at whoever gained his attention. Before him stood the girl who was being harassed just moments ago. Her green eyes shone in the moonlight, and her pale blond hair appeared almost silver. "I-I just wanted to thank you for saving me just now. I really appreciate it,"

Emil closed his eyes and sighed through his nose. "Don't mention it," he replied coldly.

"O-oh…well…um, is there anything I can do for you as a thanks?" she asked.

Emil's eyebrow twitched and he clenched his teeth. Why wouldn't this girl just leave him alone? Was she really that stupid to be offering something? Emil thought he might as well take advantage of her offer. "Do you happen to have a wad of cash on you?"

"U-uh, well, no-,"

"Then I don't want your thanks. Now leave me alone,"

The girl was silent for a moment. "Alright…well, thank you again. Maybe I'll see you again," she said turning on her heel and walking back into the empty nighttime streets. Emil smiled.

"I wouldn't count on that."

* * *

><p>Lilli collapsed on the bench in a small sheltered bus stop and sighed. She wasn't used to so much action especially so late at night. She set her bag to the side and leaned back, propping herself up with the cold glass. She needed sleep, and she needed it desperately. If only it were a little bit warmer out. She shivered and rubbed her hands together. They boy in the alley was lucky to have a blanket. She wished she had thought to pack one.<p>

She shivered again and watched a little, white, puffy cloud form in front of her. She lay down across the bench and placed her head on her bag. Was it the most comfortable pillow Lilli had ever slept with? No, but will it do? Absolutely yes. Her eyelids felt heavy, just as they did before those two men came and attacked her.

Surprisingly, once she closed her eyes, she didn't have much trouble falling asleep. At one point, there was roughly a one-hour period where she dreamed.

She found herself running down a long hallway lined with doors and she had to hold up the skirt of a long, puffy, white dress to keep from tripping. She was in a hurry, but for what occasion she was unclear on. When she reached the end of the hallway, she saw an ornately decorated door carved with flowers; lily and white dryas. She felt happy for some reason, like whatever was behind the door was someone familiar, someone she knew she would trust with her life. She stuck out her hand, grabbed the doorknob and—

HONK

Lilli shot up in surprise at the sudden and loud nose. She turned quickly to find the source and her eyes fell upon a city bus, similar to the one she had taken the previous night. The doors to it opened and she could see the bus driver. "Hey, Miss, you going to get on or not?" he asked. He sounded younger than Lilli had expected, only around twenty or so. He was dressed in the typical bus driver uniform, but he wore a bomber jacket over it.

Lilli picked up her bag and slung it over her shoulder. She boarded the bus, pulled out seventy-five from her side pockets, and fed the meter. "So what's a young girl like you doing sleeping in a bus stop at five in the morning?" he asked.

"Oh, um, well…," Lilli didn't know how to answer. Should she tell this man the truth? After all, it wasn't as if she was ever going to see him again. Then again, if she did lie, he'd have no way of knowing. Suddenly he burst out laughing.

"Relax kid, I'm just joshin' ya. Just take a seat, but be sure to stay low. I'm supposed to be out of service until noon."

Lilli nodded and stumbled into one of the first few seats. "Excuse me, but how far does this bus go?" she asked, setting her bag at her feet.

"Ooh…good question. I think a little past the library. I really don't know. It just kinda became mechanical, ya know? The same route every day, and the same stops every half hour."

Lilli nodded. "Okay, thanks,"

She sat in silence for a while, listening to the rumbling of the engine and enjoying the heat provided. The only thing she didn't like too much was whenever the wheels hit a bump or pothole and she was almost knocked over.

Ten minutes later, according to the digital clock just above the seat across from her, the bus pulled to a screeching halt. She heard coins fall into the machine and it beeped. "How far does this go?" questioned a voce that sounded very familiar to Lilli.

"You're the second person to ask me that this morning," the bus driver laughed. "But to answer your question, just past the library."

The bus sent in motion and Lilli finally put the voice to a face. The boy from the alley sat down across from her and sighed before falling to his side and splaying out across three seats. The moments afterward consisted of awkward and uncomfortable silence.

"Are you just going to keep staring at me or are you going to say something?"

Lilli jumped. How did he know? She thought he was asleep. He opened his eyes, revealing what Lilli thought were the most beautiful irises she had ever seen, a deep violet. "Oh, I, um…,"

The silver haired boy smirked. "I have to say, I'm surprised to see you too."

Lilli blushed and turned away, unsure of how to respond. Luckily, for her, the bus driver thought it was a good idea to butt into the conversation.

"Do you two know each other?" he asked.

The boy raised his eyebrows. "I guess you could say that. We kinda ran into each other last night and we're just shocked to meet up again so soon. I mean, in a city of this size."

Lilli furrowed her brow. "Come to think of it, I didn't catch your name last night. What is it?"

"Emil," he responded. "And yours?"

"Lilli," she smiled.

The sat in silence for another fifteen minutes, before Emil pulled the chord to signal he wanted to get off the bus when he noticed they were just a block or two away from the library. He sat up, picked up his bag, grabbed the pole in front of him and walked up to the front of the bus. Lilli did the same.

However, the bus driver didn't slow down one bit, and he sped right past the building. Lilli and Emil looked at them with confused expressions. "Why didn't you-," Emil started.

"Believe me; you don't want to stay in this crap hole of a city. Now sit back down!"

The two teenagers fell back into their seats and glared at the bus driver. "What do you think you're doing?" Lilli demanded.

"You two are runaways right? Well, the longer you stay here, the faster you're gonna get caught by the fuzz, and I think that's the last thing you want. I know this place, a couple miles outside the city that's practically a safe haven for people like you two."

Lilli and Emil exchanged hopeful glances. A place where runaways were accepted rather than frowned upon sounded nice to them.

"Now, hold on tight guys," the bus driver said, pushing up his glasses, pressing a few buttons, and slamming down on the accelerator. "It's going to be a bumpy ride!"

* * *

><p><strong>So...Five guesses on who the bus driver is. XP <strong>


	4. Trust Me

**Whew...I'm sorry this took me so long to type up...school got in the way and that sort of stuff...soo...yeah. This chapter is a little on the longer side compared to the previous ones...at least...it was on Microsoft word...but that's cuz it's pretty dialogue heavy. Anyway...I hope you like it. ^.^**

**As much as I wish I owned Hetalia, I'm not clever enough so, it'll remain the property of Hidekaz Himaruya.**

* * *

><p>Never had Emil felt so terrified in his life. Even the time he accidentally broke Tino's favorite rifle was nothing compared to the fear he was experiencing now. It was obvious this bus driver had seen a few action movies too many; they were driving at least 80 miles per hour down the highway. He didn't even know city busses could drive that fast! He clutched to the pole in front of him so hard his knuckles turned white, completely forgetting about his belongings, which slid to the other side of the bus.<p>

He glanced over at Lilli. She was hugging the pole on her side for dear life; she breathed heavily and looked as if she were on the verge of tears. Against his better judgment, Emil let go of his pole with one hand, grabbed Lilli's and sat down beside her. He narrowly missed hitting his head against the ceiling of the vehicle because of a pothole. All the while, the bus driver was laughing like a maniac.

The death ride lasted for another half-hour according to the clock on the bus, but to Emil and Lilli, it felt like forever. It appeared to Emil as if they had entered the next town over, however, the name on the "_Welcome!"_ sign had faded away due to the weather. The bus pulled up next to a small building in the middle of the town that had a sign in front reading _"Public Library."_ The doors of the bus swung open and the driver stood up, facing the two teens. "I believe this is your stop," he grinned.

Emil slowly released the pole from his grasp and stood up. His legs felt tingly and wobbly, like jello. He picked up his bag, which had slid back to its original spot, and looked the bus driver in the eyes. "Thank you mister…,"

"Jones! Alfred F. Jones! But you can call me Alfred…or Al. works."

Emil smiled. "Thank you Alfred," he said as he stepped off the bus. Lilli, who had spent most of the ride in a near paralytic state, realized the bus had come to a halt. She hesitantly stood up. When she was sure she wasn't going to fall over or throw up, she grabbed her bag and headed for the doors, after Emil. She turned to Alfred and gave him a small thank you.

He flashed her a smile and a thumbs up. "No problem, little lady! After all, what are heroes for?" Lilli giggled and stepped down onto the sidewalk, next to Emil. "Take care now!" Alfred said giving them a salute.

Emil saluted back. "Will do."

Alfred nodded and closed the bus doors before driving away, leaving the two teenagers by themselves in an unknown town. "What now?" Lilli asked.

Emil looked at her through the corner of his eye. "I don't know about you, but I'm gonna try to find a place to stay. Well, it was nice seeing you," He said walking down the street. Lilli was about to call for him to come back, but her cry caught in her throat. This boy confused her. First, he saved her from almost being raped, and then he told her to buzz off. Just hours later he sits next to her during the most terrifying bus ride ever, and now he's ditching her.

She sighed and decided to go into the library. If anything, it should give her information on the town. Maybe she should find a phone book and see if there are any cheap places to stay.

It was no surprise that the library was quiet, but it was eerily empty as well.

"Um…hello?" she called. There was no answer. She concluded that if anyone was in the building, they were probably in one of the back rooms sorting books. She moved toward the reference section and browsed for a phone book. She found one from a few years ago and when she pulled it off the shelf, a cloud of dust burst in her face, causing her to go into a fit of coughs and sneezes. She dropped the book and it landed with a soft thump.

She rubbed the dust out of her eyes and blinked. She felt a sudden chill up her spine, as if someone had snuck up on her, and turned around. However, no one was there, only several stacks of books. She turned back around, closed her eyes and sighed.

"Excuse me miss, but I think you dropped this," came a ghostlike whisper. Lilli opened her eyes to come face to face with a man no older than eighteen, with wavy blond hair, glasses, and a red hoodie holding the phone book she had dropped. She screamed.

"Ah! I'm so sorry! Please don't scream, I didn't mean to scare you!"

Lilli took a deep breath and placed a hand on her chest, shaking her head. "N-no, I should be the one apologizing. I don't normally react like that. Thank you," she took the phone book from him and moved to sit at a nearby table. The man followed.

"Pardon me for saying, but I don't recognize you. You're not from around here are you?"

Lilli laughed lightly. "No, I'm not. Why?"

"We don't get many visitors here. This place is kind of off the maps. Most people who end up here roll in with a flat tire or an empty tank of gas. I'm Matthew by the way,"

"Lilli. Really? I got here via insane bus driver. I swear, it was the most frightening bus ride ever!"

Matthew blinked. "This bus driver…blond hair, blue eyes, glasses…?" he asked.

Lilli nodded. "Bomber jacket, yeah. He looked a bit like you, come to think of it."

Matthew's face brightened to the point he nearly glowed. He excitedly grabbed Lilli's hand and pulled her from her seat.

"W-where are we going?" she stuttered, trying to keep up the pace to Matthew's fast walking. He smiled at her.

"You must be one of the newcomers Al told me about!"

"Newcomers? What?"

He stopped abruptly and looked around frantically. "Wait a minute…He said there were two of you. Where's the other one?"

Lilli furrowed her eyebrows. "What are you talking about?"

"You were traveling with another person, right?"

"I shared the bus ride with someone else, yes, but—,"

"Where is he?"

"I-I don't know! He just left me outside the library!" Lilli sputtered.

Matthew sighed. "Great…He better not get caught…Follow me," he said.

Lilli followed him into one of the sorting rooms, only rather than books, there were several people from ages twelve to around twenty, chattering and eating. They all turned their attention to Matthew and Lilli after the door slammed shut behind them. Lilli shifted her weight and blushed. She always felt awkward in situations when everyone was watching her.

"Everyone," Matthew started, "Meet Lilli. She's one of the newcomers I told you about earlier."

"You mean when you woke us up at five this morning'?" grumbled a young man with a heavy Australian accent, spiky brown hair, and a band-aid on his nose. He received a punch on the shoulder from a girl who looked enough like him to be his younger sister.

"Hush now, Cody! Sorry 'bout him Matt, he hasn't had coffee yet."

"Don't worry about it Phoebe, I don't mind," Matthew smiled.

"Wait, you said there were two of them. Where's the other one?" piped in an African girl who had her hair tied into pigtails with red ribbons.

"That's why I'm here to ask you for your help, Victoria," Matthew responded. "We all know that we're allowed to stay here because the people who live in this town let us stay. But this means we have to give them good reason to allow us to reside here."

Everyone exchanged concerned glances.

"Let me rephrase that. It means that we need to make sure that we don't misbehave or cause any unnecessary trouble."

"How would wandering around town cause trouble?" Lilli asked.

"It's wouldn't. It's more of a formality. This town is small, and everyone knows everybody. They would notice someone new, and they would come to us asking questions. They don't like us keeping secrets, and they have good reason." Matthew answered. He turned to Victoria. "So, Vic, I need you to go out and find this guy."

Victoria nodded, her hair bounced up and down, and then she turned to Lilli. "Can you give me a basic description? Name, height, hair color?

"He's got white hair, about five foot ten, maybe? His name is Emil." Lilli responded.

Victoria nodded and sprinted out the door, after calling, "I'll be back in about twenty minutes!"

Matthew waved her goodbye before turning back to the group. "Alright, I'm going to set up shop for the day. Cody, you're on babysitting duty. Katya, Eduard, can you guys come in around eight?"

The woman he addressed, Katya, bit her lip in thought. "Raivis is still sick. I don't want to leave him…,"

Cody, who seemed to have cheered up a little, courtesy of the now steaming mug of coffee in one hand, clapped the other on Katya's shoulder.

"Don't worry Kat. I'll take care of him. It's just a cold. Nothing I can't handle."

"You sure about that?" Phoebe remarked, offhandedly.

Everyone laughed and Cody pulled his sister close, giving her a fierce noogie. "How was I supposed to know you had tomato soup earlier? You blew chunks and it was bloody red!"

Everyone laughed again. Even Lilli let a small giggle slip. They all seemed so close and so happy together; despite the fact, they were all sleeping in the sorting room of a library. Lilli felt a twinge of jealousy because of their close-knit relationships. They were a family, even though not all of them were related by blood.

"Don't worry Matt. We'll be there," said a blond man, who pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

Matthew nodded. "Okay, I'll see you guys later. Be sure to make Lilli feel welcome." He said walking out the door.

Once again, all attention was on Lilli, and the awkwardness returned. After a long silence, someone finally spoke. "Well, bloody heck girl, sit down!" exclaimed Phoebe. She grabbed Lilli's wrist and pulled her to the floor, next to her.

Phoebe was about to open her mouth to ask a question when Victoria came in, dragging Emil by his ear.

"Found him!" she smiled triumphantly. "Peter, what was my time?"

A boy who hadn't spoken before, with messy blond hair and very thick, dark eyebrows looked at his stopwatch. "Fifteen minutes and forty-two seconds."

Victoria beamed and went up to Peter, giving him a high-five. "Yes! Best time yet!"

"Ahem!" Emil cleared his throat loudly to get attention. "Excuse me, but what the hell is going on?"

Victoria crossed her arms. "Relax would you? I told you on the way here, everything'll be explained tonight."

Emil scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Now if you don't mind, I'm gonna—,"

His eyes met Lilli's and he stopped dead in his tracks. "Looks like we meet again."

Lilli smiled sheepishly. "Yeah…I guess so…"

Emil sat down beside her and crossed his legs. "That girl is insane. I was sitting down in the park, minding my own business, and she grabbed my by the arm and started dragging me."

Sensing she was the topic of discussion, Victoria knelt down in front of them. "Don't whine. If I hadn't come to get you, all of us would be kicked out of here, and it'd be all your fault."

Emil mumbled something in a language Lilli couldn't understand, but the tone of his voice suggested it was probably something rude or vulgar. "You still haven't explained where here is exactly. Can I at least get something to work with?"

"It's basically a sanctuary for runaways," piped in Phoebe. Victoria glared at her, but the brunette shrugged. "Just give the bloke what he wants. He'll shut up the sooner you do.

Victoria and Emil frowned, both knowing she was right, but neither wanted to admit it. "I'm Phoebe by the way," she said beaming at Emil, offering her small hand. He took it and gave it a shake.

"Emil," he answered.

"Alright, Katya and I are going to head out for work. Cody is in charge. We'll be back at six o'clock." Eduard said as he gripped the door handle. Katya was right behind him. She smiled at the younger group and gave them a small wave goodbye before she followed Eduard out the door.

"So…what exactly do you guys do all day?" Emil asked. "I mean, I doubt you just spend eight to ten hours just sitting on your asses." He received a smack upside the head from Cody, who was walking by to fill his coffee cup.

"Watch your language."

Phoebe rolled her eyes. "Hypocrite," she sighed.

Cody stuck his tongue out at her, but she just waved her hand as if she was swatting away a fly.

Lilli and Victoria giggled.

"To answer your question, we read…a lot. What else would you do in a library? Sometimes we'll watch a movie, but we've seen most of the ones that aren't rated R, so it gets kind of boring after a while." Phoebe said.

Victoria nodded in agreement. "We'll talk and play games too. Ya know, usual family stuff~!"

Victoria and Phoebe smiled at each other. Emil and Lilli shifted uncomfortably. Neither of them did anything fun like playing games with their families, let alone get into conversations and laugh at trivial things.

"C'mon," Victoria said standing up. "What kind of books do you like? We'll show you where they are."

Emil, Lilli, and Phoebe followed Victoria into the main room where all the books were and stopped into the center. The African girl placed her hands on her hips and grinned. "Now, albino boy, what kind of books do you like?"

Emil's face flushed a light pink. "I…like…books on puffins…," and his face turned bright red. Victoria's eyes widened slightly in surprise.

"Really? I never would have pegged you for the type of guy…," she trailed off. "Nevermind!" she exclaimed, grabbing his wrist and dragging him off toward the non-fiction books.

Lilli's shoulders shook in her attempts to contain her endless giggles. "Is Victoria always like this?" she asked.

"Only sometimes," Phoebe responded with a smile. "So, looks like I'm your tour guide. Where to?"

Lilli tapped her chin in thought. "Hmm…I like to read romance novels, I guess…"

Phoebe nodded, and led her toward the fiction stacks. She stopped in front of a sign that read "Romance" and gestured for Lilli to go in front of her. The blond girl scanned the shelves looking for a promising title, while Phoebe leaned back against the opposite shelf and crossed her arms. "So I take it you and Emil aren't dating then."

Lilli chocked on her spit, and she snapped her head in Phoebe's direction. "What?"

Phoebe shrugged. "You and Emil aren't dating, right?"

"N-no…why are you asking such things?" Lilli sputtered.

"Well, why would someone want to read a romance novel if they're in a relationship? I mean, you'd be living in one, for Pete's sake."

Lilli raised an eyebrow, and Phoebe shook her head. "Sorry Lilli, I've been reading a lot of psychology books recently. I also thought that because you and Emil came to town together, that you know…were lovers and your families didn't agree with it or something."

Lilli laughed. "You mean like in _Romeo and Juliet_?" she asked.

Phoebe shrugged and laughed. "Yeah, I guess so."

Lilli shook her head, turning back to the shelf of books. "No, Emil and I aren't together…"

* * *

><p>After picking out every single book about northern Atlantic sea creatures off the shelf, Emil plopped himself down in one of the cushy chairs in the reading area. Right after he sat down, Victoria stood in front of his light. He looked up reluctantly and sighed. "What?"<p>

"You and Lilli. Spill. Now." She demanded.

Emil furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "But…there's nothing to spill…now leave me alone."

Victoria groaned and snatched the book from his hands. "Don't be a jerk. What kind of forbidden romance resulted in you and Lilli running away together? C'mon dish!"

Emil scoffed and sighed. "There is no romance. I hardly know the girl." He stood up, towering over the smaller girl. "Now give me the book back." He growled.

Victoria stood her ground for a moment, before giving up. "Fine. Whatever," she grumbled, shoving the book into Emil's chest before turning on her heel to walk back into the stacks.

* * *

><p>Matthew, Eduard and Katya came back at around six P.M., each carrying a large box of pizza in their hands. They entered the sorting room, and set the boxes down on a large card table lining the back wall. Matthew took mental attendance of everyone in the room.<p>

_Vici's here…so's Phoebe, Cody, Raivis, Peter, Emil and Lilli…okay…Looks like everyone is here._

He turned to Eduard and Katya and voiced his thoughts. They nodded and opened the pizza boxes. Matthew then turned to everyone else, who were sitting on the floor and talking to one another. Matthew cleared his throat and everyone broke off from their conversations and looked at him.

"I'm still not used to that…," He laughed. "Well, I'd like to say a proper welcome to our newcomers Emil and Lilli," he smiled. Cody started clapping loudly, and everyone else followed. When the clapping died down, Matthew continued. "It's our informal tradition that whenever we receive a newcomer into our hodge-podge of a family, we have pizza for dinner. Lilli, Emil, as the newcomers, you have the honor of getting the first slices."

Katya handed paper plates to them, and they stood up. "We've got cheese, sausage, and erm…everything." She smiled.

The two teens nodded, and picked pieces from the cheese pizza. They sat back down on the ground and everyone else went up to grab their dinner. When they all had a piece of pizza, they sat in a circle. After settling down next to each other, they all turned to Emil and Lilli.

"Welcome to the family," Matthew said.

"Welcome to the family," everyone repeated.

* * *

><p><strong>I originally planed for another conversation at the end, but I decided it fit in better with the next chapter (which was actually going to be a filler chapter, but it's not anymore...XD) so, you'll have to deal with this little fluffy chapter conclusion. ^_^<strong>


	5. City of Blinding Lights

**Ugh...I feel terrible for not having this done sooner. I meant to have this done by Valentines day! I should really stop setting goals for myself. I never meet them... -.- Anyway, I finally got chapter five up...*waves flag* I think my biggest motivation was seeing that someone had mentioned my story on an IceLiech blog on Tumblr, and I was like "al;kafdakjdf lkjdef j MUST GET CHAPTER FIVE DONE!111!11" **

**Yeah...So, sorry if it sucks, but it's long...11 pages on MicrosoftWord, and most of it was pushed out in one day with no editing, so if there are inconsistencies, or just general crappy writing, I'm sorry. I probably won't fix it because I'm lazy as hell. Chapter six probably wont be this long... :/**

**Hetalia and all of it's characters belong to Hidekaz Himaruya**

* * *

><p>"So, if you don't mind me asking," Katya started, gently wiping her face, "Where are you two from?"<p>

Lilli and Emil exchanged glances. "Baxley," Emil answered. "We're from Baxley."

Katya smiled and clapped her hands together. "Really? Eduard, Raivis, Matthew and I are all from Baxley!"

Emil looked at each one and they nodded in confirmation. Eduard placed his pizza down on the paper plate in front of him. "Raivis and I actually have a brother who still lives in Baxley. He was lucky enough to find an alternate way…," he trembled slightly and removed his glasses to wipe his eyes. Katya took his arm and rubbed his back.

"Shh…Don't worry, Eduard. He can't get to us here."

Matthew shot Katya and Eduard a sympathetic smile before turning to Emil and Lilli. "I also have a brother who lives there. You've met him. He was the man who brought you here."

Lilli nodded. She had suspected as much. The two men looked very similar. If it weren't for the difference in personality, she would probably think that the bus driver, Alfred, and the man letting her stay with him, Matthew, were the same person. Emil, rather than nodding in understanding, simply stated, "Your brother is nuts."

To their surprise, Matthew laughed. "That, I can't deny, but he means well. Not everyone is willing to risk their job just to help runaways make it from one city to the next."

"Hold up," Cody interrupted. "From what I hear, Baxley is a nice city. Why did you leave?"

Emil snorted before breaking out into a fit of uncontrollable laughter. "Sure, depending on where you are, it's nice. But where I grew up…,"He shook his head and clicked his tongue. "Let's just say where I'm from, a fair number of people keep concealed weapons, not necessarily meant for self-defense. I left to escape that. I can't think of anywhere in the country much worse than the Baxley ghetto." He spat out each word as if they put a foul taste in his mouth.

Cody nodded, Emil's reason made sense to him. Then he looked at Lilli. "What 'bout you?"

Lilli's ears turned red. There's no way she could tell the truth. It's obvious that all of these runaways had some really bad crap happen in their lives, and while they might feel sympathetic to the thought of an arranged marriage, there's no way they'll treat her as an equal if she told them she had run away from not only a wealthy family, but from the family in charge of Edelstein corporations. "Domestic issues," is what she ended up spitting out. It wasn't a complete lie…but it wasn't exactly the entire truth.

Cody's eyes softened. "Domestic issues? Well, if ya ever need anyone to talk to, Phoebe and I are here for ya."

Phoebe nodded and gave Lilli a thumbs up. In turn, the blond girl smiled. "Thank you."

"You're safe here with us now. That's what matters." Matthew said gently, patting Lilli lightly on the back. "I'm sorry about the abrupt subject change, but how old are you two? I need to ask because I need to know whether or not you're able to legally work. As part of our deal, anyone who is able to work must."

"It's not all that bad," Katya said, addressing the reluctant and worried expressions dawning Emil and Lilli's faces. "Whatever money you earn, you keep. Sometimes it's a lot, sometimes it's a little. It may not be the most legal way of doing things, but it's not like the feds will concern themselves with this backwater town."

"W-well…I'm sixteen," Lilli said softly.

"Seventeen," Emil grunted.

Matthew nodded and smiled. "Good! I'll start you two on odd jobs tomorrow!"

LineBreakLineBreakLineBreak

The next morning…

"Hey, Lilli. Get up. Breakfast is ready."

Lilli groaned and opened her eyes reluctantly. Her back was extremely sore. She wasn't used to sleeping on the floor, and considering there was only one cot—currently being occupied by the ill Raivis—and two couches—it's a race to determine who sleeps on those—she didn't have much of a choice but to curl up into a ball and sleep on the carpet. Phoebe, who had woken her up, stifled a snicker. "You've got carpet patterns all over your face."

Lilli groaned again and rubbed her eyes. "Whattimeisit?" she slurred sleepily.

Phoebe shrugged. "Early enough to still be dark, but late enough for breakfast."

Lilli blinked stupidly. "Wha…?"

"I'd say it's about 6:30 a.m.," Phoebe laughed.

Tossing off her thin wool blanket, Lilli got to her knees, stood up, and cracked her back. Despite how sore she was, it was much nicer sleeping on the carpeted floor than spending another night in a bus stop. She gently patted down the wrinkles in her favorite dress and turned to Phoebe. "Well, do I look presentable?"

Phoebe smiled and inspected Lilli's attire. "Just run a comb through that hair, and you should be fine."

After digging around in her bag for a few minutes she found the small brush she had packed and ran it through her short blond hair, careful to avoid her favorite purple ribbon, the one Vash gave her. Phoebe gave her a thumbs up, and the two went to the front of the library, where the food was.

"Oh my gosh!" Lilli exclaimed, "There's so much!"

Phoebe laughed and handed her a paper plate. "Take whatever you like."

While the spread wasn't nearly as extravagant as what she was used to, LIlli wasted no time grabbing her choice of chocolate chip muffins and strawberries. After filling her plate, she plopped down in one of the corners. It's still a tad early to be socializing. Soon after she sat down, Emil came to lean against the wall beside her. He raised his eyebrows when he saw the food on her plate.

"So I take it you don't like sweet stuff."

Lilli shot him a puzzled look. "What? Of course, I like sweet stuff! Look! It's a chocolate chip muffi—why are you laughing?"

Emil snorted and shook his head. "Calm down princess, I was being sarcastic."

"Oh…," she felt her cheeks flush. Of course, he was being sarcastic. Why else would he say that?

"So what kind of jobs do you think we'll get?" Emil asked, changing the subject.

"Matthew said that we'd be doing odd jobs." Lilli shrugged, taking a bite out of her muffin.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Emil scoffed. Lilli slapped him in the shin. "Ow! Not you too," he grumbled.

"Cody wasn't here, someone had to do it. I think it just means that we do a lot of grunt work. Mowing lawns, raking leaves, taking out the trash…painting fences…,"

"Oh…Chores. You could have just said chores."

"I didn't know you were so picky about word choice."

"I'm not. I just hate it when people say one thing but mean something else by covering up using their words." Emil said darkly.

Lilli flinched and stood up, locking her concerned green eyes with Emil's cold violet ones. "Does that happen to you a lot?" she whispered.

"More than you'd think." He responded.

Lilli felt a twinge in her chest and she had the sudden urge to hug him. What the heck has this poor boy been through? She started to raise her hand to cup his cheek; however, she was interrupted by Matthew walking up to them with Cody close behind. She quickly covered her actions by tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Are you two ready?" Matthew asked.

Lilli and Emil nodded.

"Good. Cody is going to take you to see a man named Juan Garcia. He'll get you set up and give you a list of tasks to complete by sundown. I should warn you, he may act all gruff and intimidating, but he means well. Just don't pick a fight with him and do what he says."

Cody shot Emil a warning glance, and in return, the boy raised his hands in forfeit.

"Alright, C'mon squirts, we're wasting daylight!" Cody shouted, marching out the door. Lilli shot Emil a smile, grabbed his hand, and followed the Australian man, pulling the white haired boy along with her.

* * *

><p>The sun cast a warm orange glow over the cool morning scenery. As much as Emil wanted to hate it, he couldn't. There was something calming about the small quiet town. It was for that reason why he felt so unsettled. Where were the blaring police sirens? Where were all the cars? What happened to the sounds of the city? But, here's the better question, why was Emil starting to miss it?<p>

Although it was a short walk to Juan Garcia's house, Emil spent the entire time fidgeting, earning quite a few concerned looks from Lilli. When they reached the doorstep of the house, Emil had it in his right mind to run back and get on the next bus that passed, but for one reason or another, he couldn't bring himself to. He just couldn't bring himself to leave Lilli. Why?

Cody rapped his fist on the door and took a step back. The door flung open with great force and Emil thought it would rip off from its hinges. In the frame stood a large, well-built man, smoking a cigar. Lilli coughed lightly at the smell of the smoke. Wasn't it a little early to be smoking?

"G'day Juan!" Cody beamed.

Juan grunted a "Good morning" and took a puff of his cigar. "Are these the new kids?"

"Yup!" Cody nodded.

Juan took a step forward and leaned closer to get a better look at the two teens. Lilli coughed when his smoky breath hit her face, but she quickly recovered and stood up straight. He gave a small nod and moved toward Emil. Unlike Lilli, Emil didn't move a bit. He had grown used to the smell of cigars and cigarettes almost to the point that he didn't notice it much anymore. His violet eyes locked on with Juan's brown ones, and they stared intensely at each other. "What's your name, boy?" Juan finally asked.

"Emil," he answered.

The larger man sucked in a long breath and narrowed his eyes. "D'ya know how to work a lawnmower?"

"I'm sure I can figure it out, sir."

"Good. You two are off to the park. Leaves need to be raked, the playground needs polishing, grass needs to be cut, weeds need to be pulled, and some of the fences need paint jobs. All the equipment you need is in the garage, you'll get fifty bucks each at the end of the day," and with that, Juan promptly slammed his front door closed.

A little puzzled as to what just happened Lilli and Emil slowly stepped off the front porch and walked to the garage. It was cluttered, with trash bags piling in the corner that smelled like they had been there since Emil was born, but the necessary supplies was in plain view, so each of them picked up as much as they could, and started walking to the park. Cody helped, but once they reached the gates of the park he dropped his stuff and ran back, leaving Emil and Lilli to themselves.

"Where should we start?" Lilli asked, surveying the surprisingly large park. Most of it was a grassy field, but tucked in the back corner she could see a small playground with a slide, a swing-set, a see-saw, and monkey bars. She bubbled a little in excitement. She had never been to a playground before, and she desperately wanted to know what it was like playing on one.

Emil on the other hand couldn't care less about the playground. It was nothing special. All he saw was a nicer version of the rundown and broken park he grew up near. He wasn't allowed to go there though. According to Tino, that's where all the drug dealers hung out. He picked up a rake. "We start by raking and bagging the leaves. Once that's done, we start pulling up weeds—,"

"I don't know what weeds look like,"

"Neither do I, but if it looks bad or invasive, kill it. Catch." He tossed Lilli the other rake. "After the weeds are pulled I'll start mowing the grass and you can start working on the playground. The metal doesn't look too bad, so you'll probably be done before me, in which case, you should start on repainting the fences."

Lilli smiled and nodded. "Sounds like a plan!"

They worked diligently for the next few hours, taking breaks only to catch their breath, and in Emil's case, disappear into the woods and "take care of some business." Lilli wondered what kind of business he could possibly have in the woods, but she never asked, and reasoned that it had to do with something in his legs. He always walked slightly funny whenever he left.

Victoria came around while Emil was gone and she dropped off a brownbag full of food. She questioned Emil's whereabouts, and when Lilli told her he was "taking care of business" the dark skinned girl stifled her laughter before getting up to leave. Emil came back minutes after Victoria turned a corner and disappeared from eyeshot. Lilli opened the bag and pulled out two sandwiches and two apples and gave one of each to Emil. She never knew that something so simple could be so satisfying. Emil thought it was nice eating something that didn't come out of a jar.

"We got a lot done didn't we?" Lilli smiled.

Emil looked at the park which used to be covered in leaves and weeds. He was ready to start mowing. "Yeah…I guess so," he answered. They sat in awkward silence until Emil panicked and stuffed half his sandwich in his mouth, claiming he was finished eating and rolling the lawn mower out into the field. It was an old lawnmower without a motor. Emil grimaced. He was going to get one hell of a work out.

Lilli picked at the crust of the bread, resulting in fingers covered in peanut-butter and jelly. She licked her fingers clean and wrapped the remains of her lunch in the plastic bag it came in. She'll be hungry later and it would be nice to have a snack. She picked up a bottle of cleaner and a rag before walking to the play structure. It probably would have been more fun if she didn't have to polish the metal, but she enjoyed semi-playing on the playground, especially since she left a trail of shiny metal. It made her feel like she had magical powers and she cast a spell to make things sparkle in cleanliness. She moved from the slide to the monkey-bars to the see-saw. All she had to finish was the swing-set and then she could pick up a paintbrush.

She stared warily at some of the stains. Many of them were out of her reach. She contemplated asking for Emil's help, but decided not to. She had to prove to him that she could take care of herself. She stood up on one of the seats of the swings, grabbed one chain for support, and leaned to the side, and rubbing the cleanser onto the metal. She managed to reach most of it, but there was one spot that didn't shine. She loosened her grip on the chain and leaned farther forward. Suddenly, she felt off balance and she fell to the ground. She let out a yelp in surprise and landed on her side.

Emil's head snapped up when he heard Lilli cry, and he looked around trying to pinpoint where she was. A pile of burgundy cloth, the same colour as Lilli's dress, was trembling at the base of the swing-set. Throwing down the lawnmower, he ran to her side and helped her up. "Hey, are you okay?"

Lilli's eyes glistened with tears and Emil felt his heart twinge. He fought the impulse to hug her close. Lilli rubbed her eyes and took deep breaths. She didn't want to cry in front of him. "I…I'm fine," she said, trying to take a few steps away but stumbling instead. Emil caught her and leaned her back onto the swing she fell from. He knelt down and grabbed her right leg—the side she fell on. He untied her bootlaces and took it off. "H-hey! What are you doing?" Lilli exclaimed, her face flushing bright red.

Emil's face was tinted light pink as well. "Does this hurt?" he asked sincerely, gently squeezing his fingers around her lower leg.

"Does what hurt—OW!"

Emil sighed and moved his fingers from her leg to the ribbon around his neck, which he removed and tied around her ankle. "It doesn't seem broken, but it would be a good idea to have some pressure on it." He tightly knotted the ribbon, and Lilli winced at the pain. "It also wouldn't be a good idea to put too much weight on it. Let me help you to the fence."

He pulled her arm so it rest over his shoulder, and he wrapped his arm around her waist, making himself a human crutch. They hobbled over to the fence and he gently let Lilli down in a patch of freshly mowed grass. He dashed back to the pile of supplies and brought back a bucket of white paint and a paintbrush. "Just crawl when you're done painting a section. I'll come help you as soon as I'm finished."

"…thank you…," Lilli said quietly.

Emil's eyes softened for a moment, and then turned back to work. Just because he helped an injured girl doesn't mean that he can start slaking off. The grass won't cut itself—despite his deepest wishes.

Lilli found a small amount of comfort in the repetitive motions of painting. Dip, up, down, up down. Dip, up down, up down. Every now and then, she would glance up at Emil to check on his progress. At least, that's what she convinced herself it was. Actually, she just wanted to watch him. There was something dashing about the silver-haired boy pushing a lawnmower in front of him. She went back to painting the fence, and the next time she lifted her eyes to look at him, his shirt had been removed and tossed to an unpainted part of the fence.

Her face grew warm, and she tried to focus back on painting. However, despite her (somewhat weak) attempts at ignoring him, she always found her eyes glued to his back, watching his muscles flex underneath his pale skin in a way that was hypnotic.

Emil felt uncomfortable all of a sudden. Perhaps it was karma. Whenever Lilli was working diligently painting the fence, he would steal glances at the blond haired girl and watch her dainty hands work their way across the fence. He wondered what they would feel like touching his…He shook his head, dismissing any dirty thoughts as hormones. There's no way he could let himself think such things about a girl he just met. He hated being a teenager sometimes.

It was rather awkward when they both happened to look at each other at the same time and their eyes met. They both turned embarrassing shades of red and they turned away quickly, not daring to look up again. They worked even harder, just to speed things up so they could go back to the library and they wouldn't be alone. Emil finished cutting the grass and he put his shirt back on, to Lilli's disappointment. He then grabbed the other paintbrush and sat down next to Lilli. He dipped the brush in the white liquid and began painting the fence with heavy, but even strokes.

Lilli, who regained courage quicker than Emil, would watch him from the corner of her eyes. At one point, she unconsciously stopped painting and watched him. He noticed quickly and looked at her with a slightly uncomfortable expression. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

Lilli blushed and immediately resumed painting. "I dunno…I guess, suburban life kind of suites you, I guess."

Emil quirked an eyebrow, "What makes you say that?"

Lilli laughed nervously, "You just seem to know how to do everything. You can mow a lawn, paint a fence, and tend a twisted ankle. That's a lot more than I can do…,"

Emil sighed through his nose and dipped his paintbrush again. "We all have our areas of expertise. I bet you can cook and sew better than I can."

Lilli scoffed. "Jerk, that was really sexist," she pouted, flicking her paintbrush at him, splattering his brown coat with white paint.

Emil smirked, and flicked paint back at her. "But it's true isn't it?"

Lilli fake frowned and painted a white splotch on his face. "I'm not justifying that with an answer."

He grinned, wiped the dripping paint off his face and flicked it back at Lilli. The exchange went on for a few turns until Juan came gained their attention by clearing his throat. The two teens looked up at his towering figure with guilty looks. "He better have deserved it," he said, lighting a cigar and pulling some money from his pocket and handing each of them five, ten dollar bills. "'Ere's your money. Finish up, and head back to the library. Leave the equipment here. I'll pick it up later."

They nodded, and watched the large man walk back to his house. Once he was gone, they looked down at their clothes and laughed. "We're a mess." Lilli stated.

"Ya think?" he responded, examining the stains on his jacket. "We've only got a couple feet of fence left, it shouldn't take us too long."

Lilli nodded and smiled. "Okay!"

It didn't take them very long to finish painting, but it did take a long time for them to finally leave the park. Night had fallen and fireflies were coming out, probably the last time before it got too cold for them. Emil and Lilli sat on the swing-sets, where, in the distance, they could see the lights of the city they ran away from.

"It's kind of pretty isn't it? I mean, looking at it from far away." Lilli said.

"I guess so. But a lot of things look pretty from far away. Like fire. It's pretty to look at from afar, but once you get too close you get burned." Emil responded.

"Is that what Baxley was like for you? Trapped in the middle of a fire?" she asked, gently swinging her feet. Emil was silent. "I'm sorry…if it's—,"

"No, Lilli, it's fine. I just felt…I don't know. Like my life wasn't worth anything there. I didn't fit in anywhere, I was judged by my social status, and I just felt like I was stifled there."

Lilli was surprised at his answer. She didn't expect him to have similar feelings to hers. Being of a high social class means that she must live up to certain expectations, and she didn't belong anywhere other than the estate, where she was kept prisoner. She always thought herself to be like a caged bird. "I know what you mean."

Emil sighed and his breath was visible in the cold, autumn, night air. He rubbed his hands together and stood up. "C'mon, we better get back."

Lilli nodded and leapt of the swing. She forgot about her injured ankle and her leg buckled from underneath her, causing her to collapse. Emil caught her, and pulled her back up. He thought for a moment, turned around and hunched his back. "Get on."

"What?"

Emil rolled his eyes. "Get on my back. It'll be faster than if you were to use me as a crutch."

"Oh…um…okay." Lilli clumsily climbed onto Emil's back, and she wrapped her hands around his neck. He pushed her up a little and she squeaked at how unsteady she felt, but she felt better once he started walking and the slow side-to-side motion began to lull her to sleep.

* * *

><p>One week had passed since Emil and Lilli met Matthew's family of runaways in the library. In that time, they had both managed to earn $200 each, earn a spot among the group and, on the weekend, eat some of Matthew's town famous pancakes. They both agreed that they were the best pancakes they had ever eaten.<p>

However, on the night of their one week anniversary of meeting Matthew and the gang, Lilli awoke to the rustling of fabric. She rolled over to find Emil, who she had become rather good friends with during their stay, hastily packing his bag. She groaned and sat up. "Emil? What are you doing?"

Emil jumped and whipped his head around to meet Lilli's gaze. "Lilli, you scared me. Go back to sleep."

She ignored his order and crawled over beside him. "You're packing."

"Keen observation."

"Why?"

Emil hissed through his teeth looked at the ceiling, searching for words. "Remember last week when I told you I felt stifled in Baxley?"

Lilli nodded.

"Well, it's the same thing here. It's so boring and repetitive, and no offense to everyone, but they're all far too happy. Something is going to happen and it's going to make the family fall apart," he stood up and slung the bag over his shoulder. "It's better I get out of here before that happens."

Lilli jammed on her boots, grabbed her bag and followed him. "Well, then I'm coming with you!"

Emil stopped dead in his tracks by the front door. "Lilli…"

"C'mon, we can't break a pattern now. Who's going to save me from people in dark alley-ways? Who's going to protect me from crazy bus drivers?"

"You're not going to meet anyone like that if you stay here."

Lilli's eyebrows arched downwards. "Who says I want to stay?" she said seriously.

Emil was slightly taken aback by her tone of voice, but he reluctantly gave in. "Alright…fine, but don't expect me to save you all the time."

Lilli smirked. "Oh, I count on it," she said pushing the door open. "Wait! I forgot something." She ran back to the counter and grabbed a slip of paper and a pen. She quickly scribbled _Thank you for your hospitality, but it's time we moved on. Sincerely Lilli and Emil_.

She pulled out a piece of tape from the tape dispenser and taped it to the front door. Emil read the note and chuckled. He should have expected as much from Lilli. "You ready?" he asked.

"Yeah," she answered, pushing open the door, and stepping out into the night air. "So where too?"

"Well, I hear New Amsterdam is nice this time of year."

"Emil, we're nowhere near New Amsterdam."

"We will be if we start walking toward it."

"And which way would that be?"

Emil shrugged. "No clue, but if we start walking, we'll get there faster than if we just stood still."

* * *

><p><strong>lawl...New Amsterdam was New York before it became New York...As for Baxley...that was a city a random city generator spat out at me. I have no clue where it is and this is entirely fictional. I'm sure Baxley is a very nice towncity and it's not nearly as bad as I made this story's Baxley sound. :)**


	6. Walk On

**I'm an awful terrible person and a lazy piece of shit. I should have had this done ages ago. Hell, I should be finished with this story by now, but no. I'm not. Why? Because I'm lazy. Oh well. Here it is, pushed out in a few hours, unedited and crappy. In other words: My quality work. **

**We've hit the half way mark-chapter wise anyway. Just another six more to go, and hoo boy, I'll tell you, stuff really starts to happen in the next one. So, enjoy the fluff while it lasts kiddos, 'cause you're about to get T-boned by a truck filled with angst. Happy reading!  
><strong>

**No, I don't own Hetalia or the song 'Don't Stop Believin'' by Journey.  
><strong>

* * *

><p>"Emil?"<p>

"Yes?"

"My feet hurt," Lilli complained.

"Should have worn more comfortable shoes then."

"It's not my shoes," she pouted, speeding up her pace in order to keep up with her companion. "We've been walking for days, can't we take a break?"

"Sure," he answered. Lilli perked up and started to slow down. "When it starts to get dark." Lilli pouted once more and grumbled something underneath her breath. Emil smiled lightly with his eyes closed and shook his head. He couldn't help but think that she was absolutely adorable when she was frustrated with him. "Relax," he said. "The sun is already setting. It'll be completely dark in half an hour or so. We'll set up camp then."

"Okay…," Lilli agreed. Emil could hear the disapproval in her voice. Truth be told, he was anxious to sit down and rest for a while too. There was no way he was going to admit it, but his feet were killing him, and he's felt three blisters pop. Make that four. He winced at the discomfort but kept walking.

It had been four days since they left Matthew's sanctuary for runaways, and for those past four days Emil and Lilli had been slowly walking down a highway, hoping to reach the next city. So far, they hadn't had much luck.

Night fell quickly, and the two teenagers made themselves as comfortable as they could in the grass on the side of the road. Lilli pulled off her boots and started to massage her feet. She let out a soft sigh of relief. She had never walked so much in her life. Granted, before she ran away, she'd never worked a day in her life either. The maids did most of the work. The maids or her brother…her brother. Tears welled in her eyes when she thought about him. He must be so worried about her.

She wiped her tears away and lay down on the cool grass. She curled up in the fetal position, trying to stay warm. It was a chilly night and she couldn't wish more that she was back at home in the mansion with her nice comfy bed, fluffy pillows and warm blankets. She was homesick, and she found that she couldn't stop herself from crying.

About an hour later, she heard Emil rummage around in his backpack and she felt him lay down beside her. A gust of wind blew over them and Lilli shivered, trying to hug her knees even closer to her chest. Then she felt a sudden warmth and a strong arm was thrown over her shoulder. She opened her eyes to find Emil's blanket draped over her. She rolled over a little and found herself nose to nose with the boy.

They stared at each other for a moment, before their faces turned bright red. Lilli quickly rolled back to her original position and squeaked out a small, "thank you."

Emil awkwardly cleared his throat and grunted back, "You're welcome."

"Hey…Emil?" Lilli spoke after a few moments of silence.

"Hmm?"

"Um…I just think there are some things you should probably know about me—,"

"Past not important. Go to sleep," Emil grunted.

To say it was odd to fall asleep with another human being pressed so close to her, would be an understatement, but it was probably the most comfortable Lilli had felt since she left home. If Emil knew she felt that way, he would have been inclined to agree.

* * *

><p>When Emil awoke the next morning, he felt ridiculously refreshed. Who would have thought that he had one of the best night sleeps of his life by the side of a highway. Life is full of surprises. Kind of like the one on his chest. He was not a morning person, and it generally took him a few minutes for his brain to the events of last night.<p>

That's right. He had shared his blanket with Lilli. Sometime during the night, she must have found it more comfortable to use Emil's chest as a pillow. Not that he minded though. He actually thought it was kind of cute and it reminded him of how Hanatamago would curl up on his chest. He found himself wondering how his parents and brother were doing. Was Matthias still sleeping on the couch, or had he moved into Emil's old bed—or his brother, Lukas', bed? Were Berwald and Tino doing better financially now that their youngest had run off?

Have they noticed he was gone?

Emil felt a twinge in his chest. Of course they have. Were they crying about it? Did they put up posters? How long has it been? A month or so? They probably thought he was dead by now…

Lilli stirred and snuggled closer to Emil's chest before opening her eyes. "Morning." Emil smiled. The girl on his chest blinked sleepily before realizing that she was using another human being as a pillow. She shot up, her face beet red.

"Oh—oh gosh…Emil, I'm so sorry. I didn't—,"

Emil chuckled and sat up as well. "Don't worry about it…but…um, you're still kind of sitting on my lap."

Lilli squeaked and quickly climbed off her companion's lap. "Sorry," she blushed.

"Like I said, don't worry about it," Emil responded, rolling up his blanket and stowing it away in his bag. He stood up and slung it over his shoulders. "C'mon, put your boots on. We need to keep moving."

Lilli laced up her boots and climbed back up to the pavement with Emil. "Hey, could we try hitch-hiking?"

"Hitch-hiking?" Emil repeated.

"Yeah, you know, like in the movies. When you're walking down the road and you stick out your thumb and—,"

Emil held up his hand, motioning her to stop. "I know what hitch-hiking is. I also think it's a bad idea."

"Why?" Lilli pouted.

Emil's eyebrows furrowed. Was Lilli really that innocent? If she was, there's no way he could corrupt her—oh, hell with it, she has to know, one way or another. "Because most of the people who will stop will be creepy men who would only let you into their car, and not both of us."

Lilli wore a look of genuine confusion. "Why?" she asked again.

Emil sighed reluctantly. "Because…" _Because they'll want to rape you, _he wanted to say. "Because the world isn't as good a place as you think it is."

"Oh, c'mon," she whined, grabbing one of his hands. "We could at least try. If ten creepy guys pull over to give only me a ride before one kind person offers both of us a ride, we'll stop."

Emil rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand and sighed in defeat. "Okay, fine, but no more than ten…and I get I-told-you-so rights."

Lilli gave him a lopsided smile. "You got yourself a deal."

* * *

><p>Four cars and five pick-up trucks later, Lilli and Emil found themselves continuing to walk down the never-ending highway. Once while walking, Emil called it the highway to hell, however his reference went unnoticed. Matthias would have gotten it. He would have laughed too and started singing. Tino would join in, followed by Emil, Berwald (albeit quietly), and after much convincing, Lukas would be singing along just before the second chorus.<p>

"I know it's still a bit early, but, I just want to remind you of what I said earlier." Emil said, crossing his arms. "The world isn't as—,"

"Oh, be quiet, you." Lilli glared. She was upset, understandably so. Every single person who stopped had been over the age of thirty-five and they all asked if she had wanted a ride, not Emil, not both of them, just her. She hugged her arms and kept them tight across her chest. She was beginning to feel violated, but she wouldn't tell Emil that, not yet anyway. "You haven't won yet. There's still one more car."

"Alright, alright, alright. But don't be too disappointed if they turn out to be like the others."

Lilli stuck her out her tongue. "One more car," she repeated before jogging ahead a few paces and sticking out her thumb.

Within half an hour, a semi-truck carrying what looked like produce rolled to a stop. The driver opened the passenger door and stepped out. "Ciao~" he smiled. He looked classically Italian with his lightly tanned skin and brown hair. "You two seem to be without an automobile," he said, tapping his chin. "Doesn't that make it hard to go places?"

Emil protectively wrapped his arm around Lilli's shoulder. "Yeah," he said flatly. This guy was playing innocent. There wasn't a doubt in Emil's mind that this Italian man would invite Lilli into his truck and claim that there wasn't enough room for Emil to sit. That was always the excuse.

"Hmm…Oh! I know! Why don't both of you come with me! I have to warn you though, I'm a little lost, so it'll probably take us a while before we get to the next town." The man smiled. He smiled and used hand gestures a lot. Emil didn't like it, but, unlike all of the other men, this guy seemed innocently sincere.

Lilli looked up at Emil will a smug grin. His nostrils flared a little and he shook his head. "That sounds good," he spat out.

"Fantastic~" the man sang and he climbed back into his truck.

"So…I win," Lilli grinned.

Emil scoffed. "Don't get used to it. The world is still a piece of crap."

"Maybe," Lilli started as she climbed into the truck. "But maybe it isn't as _bad_ a place as you think it is."

Emil followed her and squeezed into the small space in the truck, grumbling something about how he hated having his own words thrown back at him.

"Ve…My name is Feliciano, but you can call me Feli," the driver said as he started the truck.

"Oh, well, I'm Lilli, and this is my…friend, Emil," Lilli introduced.

Feliciano quirked an eyebrow. "You are not…um…how do you say it? Boyfriend and girlfriend?"

Emil and Lilli looked at each other uncomfortably before bursting out with a series of "No," "Most certainly not," "Of course we aren't," and "Pfft, no's"

Feliciano smiled broadly. "Oh, just friends. Okay then!" he chirped. "Well, if you don't mind me asking, why are you two traveling? I mean, it's a little weird to see two teenagers on the side of the road. At least I think it is."

"Well…We're kind of…just trying to get away from someplace." Emil said awkwardly.

"Oh. Are you from the city?"

"Yes," Lilli answered.

"Ve! Are you two like those people from that song?" Feliciano asked excitedly.

"What song?" Emil and Lilli answered in unison.

"You know," Feliciano smiled. "The one about the boy and the girl? Um, how does it go? 'Just a small town girl, living in a lonely world'" he began to sing.

Lilli giggled and sang the next line: "She took the midnight train going anywhere~"

Feliciano nodded. "Yeah! That's it! Come on Emil. Sing along!" he gestured grandly.

Emil bit his lip and gave Lilli an unsure look. "C'mon Emil. You were singing earlier today," she said gently.

Had he been? Was it when he was thinking about his family? Most likely…

Lilli nudged him in the ribs and he started to sing. "Just a city boy, born and raised in south Detroit~"

"He took the midnight train going anywhere~" Lilli and Feliciano joined in.

* * *

><p>Feliciano pulled into a grocery store's loading dock, and Emil and Lilli crawled out of the truck. "Thank you so much for the ride Feli!" Lilli smiled.<p>

"Don't worry about it," Feliciano beamed back. "I'm glad I could help. Buona fortuna!"

The two teenagers gave their new friend one last smile and waved before disappearing into the city crowd.

"Okay, so we're in the next city. What now?" Emil asked.

"I don't know. Look for a place to stay, I guess," Lilli answered.

"We've only got enough for maybe a few days in a motel…" Emil thought aloud.

"But first we should get some food. We haven't eaten properly in a few days," Lilli said, patting her tummy. It growled and Emil realized that he was hungry as well.

"Yeah, okay. I guess we walk back to that store Feliciano dropped us off at."

"Or…," Lilli started, pointing to a building across the street. "We could go there. It is closer after all. Of course, if you don't trust this store, we could always wait for the next few to come along and see what you think of them."

Emil shot her an unamused glare. "Don't get fresh, I was raised in a part of the city where my cautiousness kept me alive. The store is fine."

Lilli reached for his hand and their fingers entwined. Emil felt his heart skip a beat and a smile began to tug at his lips. They crossed the street and entered through the automatic doors. Emil couldn't remember the last time he had seen so much food in one building. The grocery store where Berwald and Tino did most of the shopping was small and run down, like most of the other buildings in that particular area.

"Okay," Emil said. "We'll canned goods, bottled water and other nonperishable foods. Look at prices, get the cheapest option, and control your impulses. Snacks like cookies or crackers are low priority, got it?"

Lilli nodded. "Yeah, got it."

Emil handed her a basket. "Alright, have fun. I'll meet you by the cash registers."

Lilli scuttled off excitedly and Emil smiled. She always seemed to be excited about extremely ordinary things. However, even Emil had to admit that returning to something completely mundane like grocery shopping was a nice change of pace after everything that he had been through. He could pretend he was normal and normalcy was something he was beginning to miss.

He sighed and slowly made his way through the isles, basket-ing only the things that he deemed necessary or useful, like plastic silverware, and toothbrushes and toothpaste. He made his way to the front of the store where all of the registers were and he saw Lilli talking with a man. It looked like she was begging him, her hands were clasped in front of her. Panicking, he ran over to Lilli's side and gave the stranger a wary look. "Lilli, who is this?" he asked, nodding his head in the other man's direction.

"The name's Gilbert," the man rasped, holding out a hand for Emil to shake. He had short, spiky white hair and crimson eyes. Emil cautiously shook his hand. "I'm Lilli's uncle, more or less." Gilbert said.

"More or less?" Emil questioned.

"He isn't directly related. Actually, he's more of a friend's acquaintance's brother. But he took care of me when I was little." Lilli smiled.

Emil nodded in understanding, but he still didn't trust Gilbert. Lilli did though, and he supposes that's good enough for him.

"So, Lilli tells me you two are staying in town for a while. I've got extra rooms in my apartment if you want to stay for a day or two."

Lilli smiled brightly and before Emil could decline the offer, she exclaimed, "Of course! Thank you so much Uncle Gil!"

Emil made the excuse to go check out their groceries. He didn't trust Gilbert. There was something off about him and Emil couldn't quite place what it was. It was probably nothing, but ever since he was little, he had learned to trust his gut when it told him someone was bad news. It hasn't been wrong yet.


	7. In Too Deep

**Haha! Take that laziness Monster! I have an update! I'm determined to finish this before my summer vacation ends, so...I hope I can do it! Ok...so, this could probably be better, and the word count might have fallen shorter than I expected, but I have chapter friggin seven up, and that's gotta count for something. So, enjoy. **

**I don't own Hetalia, Himaruya does.**

* * *

><p>According to Gilbert, his apartment was small. Emil would have to say otherwise. His living area must have been about the same size as Emil's old home, and the bedrooms were four times larger than the walk in closet in Berwald and Tino's room. When Lilli agreed with Gilbert's claim and Emil was seriously beginning to think that they had extremely skewed views when it comes to size.<p>

Gilbert helped Emil carry the bags and they set them down on the counter in the kitchen. "So you two are runaways, eh?" he asked.

Emil stiffened and looked at Lilli with wide eyes. She looked back with equally wide eyes and shook her head in a way that said that she didn't tell him. Gilbert laughed and clapped a hand on Emil's shoulder. "It really ain't that difficult to tell. The only people who have backpacks the size of yours, are people backpacking through South-east Asia and runaways."

"How do you know we're not backpacking through Asia?" Emil asked, as seriously as he could. He'd never been terribly good at lying, but he always managed to get by not telling the entire truth. This wasn't the case. He and Lilli were most certainly not backpacking through South-east Asia.

Gilbert laughed and moved to sit on the couch in front of the television. "Well, if you are, you must be incredibly lost. You're in the wrong hemisphere kid. Besides, if you two went to an airport and asked for plane tickets, you would raise some eyebrows. No, you're runaways."

Emil's jaw clenched and he glared at the older man. If it were up to him, he and Lilli would have been out of Gilbert's door and in a cheap motel room. However, Lilli was happy to see her "Uncle" Gil again, and Emil couldn't let his own distrust in the man come in the way of Lilli's happiness. She trusted him, and that's all that mattered.

Lilli sat next to Gilbert on the couch. "You won't tell anyone, will you?" she asked worriedly.

Gilbert scoffed. "Of course not. Who would I tell? You know they wouldn't believe me."

Lilli gave him a soft smile and kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you," she said.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Gilbert smirked, ruffling the girl's hair. "Tell you what, you two go clean up, take a shower and head off to bed. You two must be exhausted."

Lilli nodded and hopped off the couch. "Emmy, do you mind if I use the shower first?"

"No, go ahead." Emil said quickly. Hold up, did she just call him _Emmy_? He didn't remember approving of such a nickname, but when he turned to tell her not to call him that, she had already disappeared down the hall.

Gilbert chuckled and stood up to go to the fridge. "She's a keeper, ain't she?" he asked lightly.

"Excuse me?"

"Lilli," Gilbert clarified, opening the door to the refrigerator. "She's a keeper. Wanna beer?"

Emil gaped at the man. "I—I…we—Lilli and I aren't together." he said through clenched teeth.

Gilbert snorted. "Yes you are," he laughed, popping the cap off his beer bottle. "You wanna beer?" he asked again.

The teen looked at him skeptically.

"Relax, I ain't gonna judge you. You're what, sixteen?"

"Seventeen…eighteen in two months,"

"Then have one," Gilbert encouraged, tossing Emil a glass bottle. "Where I'm from, you could have started drinking a year or two ago. Go on."

Hesitantly, Emil popped the cap off the bottle and took a swig. Put simply, it was kind of gross. He looked at the label and saw that it was the really cheap kind of beer that was probably bought at a gas station. Gilbert saw the disgusted look on Emil's face and snickered. "Yeah, you get used to it though. What they don't have in quality, they make up in quantity," he explained, setting his beer down on the counter. "So, what are you running away from?"

Emil tried another swig of beer, deciding that it wasn't his thing and set it down. "What do you mean?"

Gilbert's eyebrows arched. "Are you getting buzzed already? You're a runaway, so, what are you running from? What's your story?"

Emil leaned against the back of the couch. Typically, he wouldn't have told a complete stranger his entire life story, but apparently, those two sips of disgusting beer had lowered his guard. Talk about low alcohol tolerance. "When I was little, my Papa was framed for a crime he didn't commit. He didn't go to prison because there wasn't enough solid evidence, but we more or less lost the court case. We were robbed of all our money, and forced to live in the roughest neighborhood in Baxley. I ran away from that. With one less mouth to feed, my family ought to be better off."

"Well, that's selfish," Gilbert said flatly.

Emil looked up at him incredulously. "How so?" he snapped.

The older man shrugged. "It just is. What makes you so sure that they'd be better off without you? Maybe they're so worried about you that now they're doing worse. They're your family. They're all you have, and you're all they have. It's because of your familial bonds that kept you going for all those years. But you just decided, 'fuck this shit, I'm leaving and they'll be better on their own.' You're a kid; you can't make decisions like that."

Emil looked away out of shame an bit his lip.

"So which company was it? That framed your dad." Gilbert asked.

Emil looked at him with dark, hate filled eyes. "Edelstein Corporations," he growled.

* * *

><p>Lilli had heard the entire exchange between Emil and Gilbert. The hate and contempt evident in Emil's voice frightened her terribly. It was because of her family that Emil had run away from his caring and loving family. It had been because of her family that Emil had experienced hardships in life.<p>

And why had she run away? Because she didn't want to get married—not to Herr VanEck anyway. Compared to Emil, she was just a spoiled little brat who threw a temper tantrum because she couldn't get her way. Thinking about it, that's almost exactly what she had done.

She wrapped a bath towel around her chest and it hung down to just above her knees and leaned against the bathroom wall. There's no way she'll be able to look at Emil without feeling guilty for what her family did, and if he ever found out who she really is, who her family is, there's no way he'd ever look at her, let alone allow her to explain. Water rolled down her cheeks and she wasn't entirely sure whether it was the water from the shower dripping from her hair or if she was crying.

Sudden pounding on the door caused her to jump. "Lilli, are you almost done in there?" she heard Emil call. "There's still some hot water, right?"

She wiped the water off her face and began to dress herself. "Yeah, hang on, just give me a sec!" she yelled back.

She ran a comb through her hair and brushed her teeth as quickly as she could. She opened the door, and a burst of steam followed her out. She walked back into the living area and announced that she was going to sleep.

Emil and Gilbert nodded, and Gil told her that she could sleep in his room. She thanked him and padded softly into the room gently closing the door behind her. Gilbert then looked at Emil and told him that he could use the guest bedroom. Emil questioned where Gilbert would sleep and the older man just patted the couch. "I've slept on worse," he answered. Emil nodded, picked up his belongings, and took his turn in the shower. He exclaimed loudly, curse words flying left and right when he found that only cold water would come out of the spigot.

Gilbert shook his head and snickered. Those two were such a married couple, even if they didn't realize it. He reached for the remote, turned on the TV and started channel flipping. He wasn't really one for TV, but sometimes he was able to find something decent. After all, with over five hundred channels, something has to be on.

Emil exited from the shower three minutes later with a towel wrapped around his waist, extremely cold and disgruntled. He muttered something about being worried that his reproductive abilities had been damaged and shut himself in the guest room, across the hall from where Lilli was sleeping.

At first, Gilbert thought about playing a little prank on them by moving one of them into the other's bed. There was a reason why he was known as 'The Immature Matchmaker' to his friends.

He flipped to the news and all but ignored it until he heard the words: Edelstein, Corporation, heir, and missing in the same headline. He turned up the volume and leaned forward to soak up every bit of news that came his way. "The heir of Edelstein Corporations, the niece of Roderich Edelstein, also known as Lilli Zwingli has been missing for nearly a month now. Having disappeared on the night of her engagement, the police were baffled to find only a single note left on her desk that read, _don't try to find me._ Zwingli's brother, Vash is convinced that she was kidnapped, despite the lack of evidence. As of recent, the police are out of leads to follow and Edelstein is offering a cash reward for anyone who provides knowledge or whereabouts of Miss Lilli Zwingli."

"A cash reward, huh," Gilbert mused. He thought for a moment and a wicked grin spread across his face. He loved his "niece" dearly, but he was beginning to think that it was about time to get back into Roderich's good graces, especially if it meant that he could see Elizabeta again.

* * *

><p>When Emil awoke the next morning, he felt worried as to what the day would bring. The last time he had woken up like that was the day of his papa's trial, and while his memory of that time in his life was hazy at best, the feeling was not. There was a storm coming.<p>

He threw the covers to the side and walked into the kitchen to find Gilbert and Lilli sitting at a small table eating breakfast. He raised an eyebrow and plopped himself down in an empty chair and poured himself a bowel of cereal; the box and milk had been sitting in the middle of the table. "So what's going on today?" Emil asked. Gilbert cleared his throat and handed Emil a list. "What's this?" the boy asked.

"It's a list," Gilbert answered.

"Yeah, I can see that," Emil scoffed. "But what for?"

"Gil wants you to run some errands for him." Lilli responded, scooping a spoonful of cereal into her mouth.

"You gotta earn you're keep 'round here, boy," Gilbert said, pouring coffee down his gullet. "Lilli's gonna stay here with me, help with a little housework and help me out a little bit with my actual work. Here," he handed Emil a wad of cash. "That should cover everything. Now, eat your breakfast and hurry on out."

"Yes mother," Emil muttered before wolfing down the entire bowl of cereal and pulling on his shoes.

"Don't use that kind of tone with me young man!" Gilbert called. Emil rolled his eyes and walked out the door.

Lilli giggled and ate another spoonful.

"He seems like a nice boy," Gilbert said.

Lilli blushed. "Yeah, I suppose he is," she answered, not entirely sure where Gilbert was going with the conversation.

"A little rough around the edges though?" He questioned.

"Um…Yeah, I guess. What are you trying—,"

"But you care for him."

"Yes," Lilli said, frustrated. "Uncle Gil, what are you trying to say?"

"Do you love him?"

Lilli's eyes widened and she began to go flush crimson. Thick silence followed and after a few moments, Gilbert leaned back in his chair and smiled. "Yeah, thought so."

Lilli looked away out of embarrassment. "Does…Does he know?" she asked, rather hopefully.

"No," Gilbert replied flatly.

Lilli's face saddened.

"But," Gilbert started, regaining the young girl's attention. "He does feel the same way."

Lilli looked up at him, grinning broadly. "He does? How can you tell?"

"Oh, Lilli, so oblivious. Vash has really done a good job at protecting you from the world," Gilbert laughed. "A lot of things give it away. The way he looks at you, the way he will keep you close, especially when a stranger approaches—like when he saw you talking to me. Once he saw us, he darted right over and hovered over you protectively. Trust me, he cares about you."

Lilli's grin couldn't help but grow wider. "Wow, really?" she asked and Gilbert nodded. She squealed and leapt up from her seat and gave Gilbert a hug, nearly knocking over the carton of milk.

Gilbert awkwardly hugged back. "Alright kiddo," he said, standing up from his chair. Lilli let him go and waited for him to continue. "Let's get these dishes clean and then you can help me out with some work,"

Lilli nodded, collected all of the dishes on the table and set them by the sink. She turned on the faucet and reached for the pile of dishware. Gilbert roughly grabbed her wrist. "Let me do that," he rasped. "I'm out of soap. Could you go look in the closet at the end of the hall for another bottle?"

"Um…yeah," Lilli said softly, nervously waiting for Gilbert to release her wrist. When he did, she hugged it close to her chest and rubbed it with her other hand. She looked at Gilbert warily and went to look in the closet.

It was small and cluttered and the light bulb hanging from the ceiling had burnt out. "Gil, I don't see any soap," she yelled to him.

"Things might have been shuffled around. Try looking in the back," he called in response.

Making sure she didn't step on anything, Lilli carefully walked into the closet and started rummaging through the shelves. "Gil, I really don't think there's any soap in—,"

The door closed behind her with a loud thud and she heard the lock click. She twirled around and immediately began pounding the door with her fists. "Gilbert! Gilbert, help!"

"Can't do that sweetheart," he sang. "Sorry to take you away from your boyfriend, but there's a wad of cash sitting on your head, and I need the money. So, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to call Roderich and collect my reward."

Lilli's jaw trembled and she broke into a full body sob. Collapsing to the ground, she hugged her knees close and hoped that Emil would make it back before the police came to take her back home.

* * *

><p>Thunder crashed overhead and Emil wished he had an umbrella. It had started pouring rain just minutes after he walked out of Gilbert's apartment building. If he had been able to find most of the items on Gilbert's list at one store, he wouldn't have minded nearly as much, but traipsing around town without an umbrella in the midst of a thunderstorm was extremely unpleasant.<p>

About two hours later, carrying roughly fifty pounds worth of miscellaneous items in four bags, Emil stumbled his way back towards Gilbert's home. He stopped briefly to exchange some coins for a newspaper. Ever since leaving home, he'd grown so out of touch with worldly issues and he thought it was about time to reeducate himself.

However, what he saw on the front page made his blood run cold. He rubbed his eyes to make sure what he read was correct. It most certainly was. The headline read, _Heir of Edelstein Corporations still missing. Police have no leads._ Directly underneath the headline was a grainy black and white photo of Lilli, the same girl who had been by his side for the past few weeks.

She was the heir of Edelstein Corporations. She was to be the head of the company that caused his life to go down the toilet. She was the reason why he had lived in the roughest part of the city. She was the reason why he ran away. Deep down, Emil knows that it really isn't her fault, but he was too blinded by rage and betrayal to realize that.

Out of pure spite and anger, he crumpled up the newspaper, dropped the bags and began to run blindly down the road, not caring at all that he was soaked to the bone. He had to get out of there, get away from the girl who turned his life upside down. He had to get away from Lilli. Otherwise, he'd end up doing something he'd regret for the rest of his life.

He bought a one-way bus ticket back to Baxley.

* * *

><p>Gilbert had left right after calling Roderich to buy some victory beer; that was about ten minutes ago. Lilli had given up on hoping for Emil to rescue her—she knew it was an unlikely event anyway—and had unbent a coat hanger and started picking the lock. She never thought of herself as the lock-picking type, but whilst trapped inside a storage closet, one tends to learn new things about themselves.<p>

The lock clicked and panicked pride swelled in her chest. She opened the door and gasped in fresh air. The closet was musty and had smelled like mothballs. She pulled on her boots, completely disregarding her bag by the front door and ran out into pouring rain. Tears rolled down her cheeks. She was terrified and desired to see a familiar face.

At the street corner, she saw a flash of silver hair and she couldn't help but smile; she had found Emil. She began to walk over, but a group of people walking in the opposite direction jostled her back a few paces and when she looked back at the corner, all she could see were a set of plastic bags.

She blinked, sprinted over and looked frantically for Emil. Next to the bags, she saw crumpled up pieces of paper. They were soggy from the rain, but she carefully undid the creases to see what was written. She expected them to be sales papers from the stores Emil had shopped at, but she gasped when she saw that it was her picture on the front page. Emil had found out who she really was.

He had abandoned her.

Gilbert must have been lying to her. He must have been lying ever since he saw them at the grocery store the evening before. He must have lied when he said that Emil liked her, because it was clear, at least to her, that he didn't.

Yet, she still couldn't help but find herself completely head-over-heels for him.

* * *

><p><strong>This is an Edit: <strong>

**It's been pointed out to me how Gilbert's character is kind of inconsistant in this chapter. First he's supporting Emil and Lilli and then he turns around and locks Lilli in a closet. Typically, I hate portraying Gilbert as the villain, and if it didn't distract from the plotline I had planned for Lilli and Emil, I would have fleshed out his reasons as to why he betrayed them much more. Please don't view Gilbert as the bad guy here, just see him as someone who is flawed and who desperately wants to see Elizabeta again.  
><strong>


	8. AN:

**Author's Note:**

****I'm aware that I said that I wanted to have this story finished before my summer vacation is over, but I don't think that's going to happen. I don't think I'm ever going to finish this. I'm really sorry, but my heart isn't in it the way it used to be. I feel awful for leaving it like that, and while I truly want to see this through, judging by the crap that I have written for chapter eight, the (already low quality) of this fic will start to plummet.

I've also kind of abandoned for AO3, and I've been spending more time over there. Sorry guys, this story is discontinued, and this account is going to be, for the most part, closed. I'll leave my fics up, because I might feel like I want to upload some of my many oneshot ideas and for others to enjoy them.

Please don't PM me or review begging me to continue, because my answer will always be "No." I'm sorry to be a dissapointment, but I've fallen out of the APH fandom, and into other ones.

Much Luck,

~ColourHunter


End file.
